Ladies SP JGP Riga Cup 2013

snsd said:

Understandable when you watch it again, however I think it might be a bit harsh considering she still uses 2/3 of the rink.

Click to expand...

Yes, I agree, it was kind of harsh.
Karen Chen just behind Maria Sotskova, with 33 on TES, which means something was not 100% right, maybe a low level on a spin, we'll see. The battle for the gold is wide open so far between top 3

Mirunna said:

The battle for the gold is wide open so far between top 3

Click to expand...

It is absolutely predictable.

Congratulations to Liubov EFIMENKO (FIN) - very good progress! She is young (20.06.1999), so Finland has a really good Junior Lady now.

Ah, I just loved Liubov's performance, she finally nailed it!! I'm so happy for her!! The choice of music was very good and very different from her previous ones, and the dress was just perfect! She looks so much more mature than last year.

Yura Matsuda's skating is so smooth and nice. Too bad her jumps look Ured even without the slow motion. You would think a 3F-3T, 3L and a 2A would score more than 21 points on TES.
Nice to see another competitive skater from Finland. Her dress was stunning, absolutely gorgeous and the program was very pretty

ISU is uploading the videos right now:

Niki WORIES(NED):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLVXaimw_ng
Na Hyun KIM(KOR):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78MLPtCkLh0
Pina UMEK(SLO):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NhkO9Gpr0U
Maria SOTSKOVA(RUS):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah6n2f5m0JU&feature=c4-overview&list=UUbv3gsBXzIwotCt2JGySfJA
Christina MARTINEZ(AND):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zip5ePQNBnA
Evgenia MEDVEDEVA(RUS):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgHR--94aRw
Liubov EFIMENKO(FIN):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjpvXoe_wRA&feature=c4-overview&list=UUbv3gsBXzIwotCt2JGySfJA
Melisa Sema ATIK(TUR):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XzQ1zHpCRM&feature=c4-overview&list=UUbv3gsBXzIwotCt2JGySfJA
Pernille SORENSEN(DEN):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XGZvrDD0PU
Anna AFOKINA(BUL):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8O46WHZQOU
Ieva GAILE(LAT):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDB33EBnsGs
Yura MATSUDA(JPN):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myep3Ht6k5Y
Yuka NAGAI(JPN):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSon1a8DrbU
Karen CHEN(USA):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDq1t66iF9w
Lutricia BOCK(GER):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWCS5jXqijM
Alaine CHARTRAND(CAN):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAdNTouXTFQ&feature=c4-overview&list=UUbv3gsBXzIwotCt2JGySfJA
Laurine LECAVELIER(FRA):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyNgAMdV_uw&feature=c4-overview&list=UUbv3gsBXzIwotCt2JGySfJA
Kristine GAILE(LAT):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGz1rz_QxWU&feature=c4-overview&list=UUbv3gsBXzIwotCt2JGySfJA
Maria GAVRILOVA(UKR):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjsM86iBxXQ&feature=c4-overview&list=UUbv3gsBXzIwotCt2JGySfJA
Kristina Isabel YNTEMA(AUT):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zy3H1ReEAo&feature=c4-overview&list=UUbv3gsBXzIwotCt2JGySfJA
Xiangning LI(CHN):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M8amJ4gSEI&feature=c4-overview&list=UUbv3gsBXzIwotCt2JGySfJA
Taylor DEAN(AUS):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib6ZRJLG6VA&feature=c4-overview&list=UUbv3gsBXzIwotCt2JGySfJA
Maria BAKUSHEVA(BLR):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVIY0zvKLDM&feature=c4-overview&list=UUbv3gsBXzIwotCt2JGySfJA
Yasmin SIRAJ(USA):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtzrLpTlSfI&feature=c4-overview&list=UUbv3gsBXzIwotCt2JGySfJA
Inga JANULEVICIUTE(LTU):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO-E8SSbfk4
Eike LANGERBAUR(EST):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKiifwE2DLI
Alina FJODOROVA(LAT):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7mG-6saR1E

Results:

1 Maria SOTSKOVA RUS 59.45 35.97 23.48 6.00 5.68 5.93 5.86 5.89 0.00 #4
2 Karen CHEN USA 58.21 33.90 24.31 6.07 5.79 6.21 6.14 6.18 0.00 #14
3 Evgenia MEDVEDEVA RUS 55.17 31.28 23.89 5.93 5.54 6.11 6.11 6.18 0.00 #6
4 Liubov EFIMENKO FIN 51.80 30.66 21.14 5.29 5.00 5.36 5.39 5.39 0.00 #7
5 Yasmin SIRAJ USA 51.70 28.90 22.80 5.64 5.54 5.68 5.86 5.79 0.00 #24
6 Alaine CHARTRAND CAN 49.60 28.17 21.43 5.39 5.04 5.36 5.39 5.61 0.00 #16
7 Laurine LECAVELIER FRA 47.67 26.76 20.91 5.25 4.89 5.32 5.25 5.43 0.00 #17
8 Na Hyun KIM KOR 47.29 29.21 18.08 4.68 4.25 4.54 4.68 4.46 0.00 #2
9 Yuka NAGAI JPN 46.87 26.33 20.54 5.43 4.93 5.11 5.18 5.04 0.00 #13
10 Lutricia BOCK GER 43.02 24.74 18.28 4.79 4.39 4.64 4.57 4.46 0.00 #15
11 Yura MATSUDA JPN 42.59 21.65 20.94 5.46 5.00 5.32 5.18 5.21 0.00 #12
12 Inga JANULEVICIUTE LTU 42.48 25.43 17.05 4.46 3.93 4.36 4.39 4.18 0.00 #25
13 Xiangning LI CHN 41.84 23.66 18.18 4.79 4.32 4.64 4.61 4.36 0.00 #21
14 Ieva GAILE LAT 37.28 20.31 16.97 4.39 4.04 4.25 4.29 4.25 0.00 #11
15 Anna AFONKINA BUL 36.84 20.16 16.68 4.29 3.93 4.21 4.29 4.14 0.00 #10
16 Kristine GAILE LAT 36.24 19.54 16.70 4.43 3.93 4.18 4.21 4.14 0.00 #18
17 Eike LANGERBAUR EST 35.13 18.93 16.20 4.07 3.79 4.14 4.14 4.11 0.00 #26
18 Kristina Isabel YNTEMA AUT 33.37 17.06 16.31 3.93 3.86 4.21 4.14 4.25 0.00 #20
19 Maria GAVRILOVA UKR 33.19 18.16 16.03 4.21 3.82 3.96 4.18 3.86 1.00 #19
20 Pernille SORENSEN DEN 32.49 17.75 15.74 4.18 3.64 4.00 4.04 3.82 1.00 #9
21 Niki WORIES NED 32.13 17.95 14.18 3.82 3.36 3.57 3.54 3.43 0.00 #1
22 Taylor DEAN AUS 31.38 17.21 15.17 3.71 3.50 3.96 3.79 4.00 1.00 #22
23 Alina FJODOROVA LAT 30.44 16.00 16.44 4.32 3.86 4.11 4.00 4.25 2.00 #27
24 Pina UMEK SLO 30.10 14.83 15.27 3.86 3.61 3.82 3.86 3.93 0.00 #3
25 Maria BAKUSHEVA BLR 30.02 16.91 14.11 3.68 3.32 3.54 3.64 3.46 1.00 #23
26 Cristina MARTINEZ AND 29.64 15.87 13.77 3.57 3.21 3.50 3.46 3.46 0.00 #5
27 Melisa Sema ATIK TUR 27.35 12.33 15.02 3.75 3.39 3.93 3.82 3.89 0.00 #8

Protocols are up:
http://www.isuresults.com/results/jgplat2013/jgplat2013_JuniorLadies_SP_Scores.pdf

Medvedeva and Chen beating Sotskova in PCS is a joke :disapp:

sky_fly20 said:

Medvedeva and Chen beating Sotskova in PCS is a joke :disapp:

Click to expand...

I thought Karen Chen was amazing. She had much more speed than both Russian ladies combined, her program is well constructed and she skated very well (except the combo which was a little bit jerky). To me, Karen deserved to win the PCS. I am with you about Medvedeva though (I am warming up to her style of skating), but they are almost tied on PCS and Sotskova did scored better than her on SS, which is as it should be.

Mirunna said:

I thought Karen Chen was amazing. She had much more speed than both Russian ladies combined, her program is well constructed and she skated very well (except the combo which was a little bit jerky). To me, Karen deserved to win the PCS. I am with you about Medvedeva though (I am warming up to her style of skating), but they are almost tied on PCS and Sotskova did scored better than her on SS, which is as it should be.

Click to expand...

Chen had better SS I will give her that
she was the fastest on the ice but that was about much her advantage
the placemnt seems right but the disparity in pcs is not

seems we already have 5 potential JGP Finalists on line up
Sotskova, Chen, Medvedeva, Edmunds and Sakahanovich

What would you call that Chen double axel technique? It's starts looking like a salcow or loop entrance and an edge jump but all of a sudden she's forward!

gmyers said:

What would you call that Chen double axel technique? It's starts looking like a salcow or loop entrance and an edge jump but all of a sudden she's forward!

Click to expand...

I think she does it in this way to get high GOE since that looks like a difficult entry, IMO. Yuzuru did his 3A in the SP similarly last season

Mirunna said:

I think she does it in this way to get high GOE since that looks like a difficult entry, IMO. Yuzuru did his 3A in the SP similarly last season

Click to expand...

It did get good GOE but it didn't look like a hard transition it looked like awful technique LOL! Guess the judges went with difficult entry. She doesn't seem to take off like she's doing an axel.

gmyers said:

It did get good GOE but it didn't look like a hard transition it looked like awful technique LOL! Guess the judges went with difficult entry. She doesn't seem to take off like she's doing an axel.

Click to expand...

She can do it with a normal entry, here is her LP from Glacier Falls this summer:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn9_1rr-IdY go to minute 2:05

Mirunna said:

She can do it with a normal entry, here is her LP from Glacier Falls this summer:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn9_1rr-IdY go to minute 2:05

Click to expand...

Well its interesting! Getting a transition that makes it looks like you have awful technique! LOL!

Mirunna said:

I thought Karen Chen was amazing. She had much more speed than both Russian ladies combined, her program is well constructed and she skated very well (except the combo which was a little bit jerky). To me, Karen deserved to win the PCS. I am with you about Medvedeva though (I am warming up to her style of skating), but they are almost tied on PCS and Sotskova did scored better than her on SS, which is as it should be.

Click to expand...

Just watching the videos (before reading scores/protocols) I thought that my ranking for the PCS was:
1) Chen
2) Medvedeva
3) Chartrand
4) Siraj
5) Sotskova: she really didn't impress me, artistically, I think that I need to watch her program again to understand these "high" scores, because I frankly thought that her program was very weak in the PE, CH and IN areas (in the 4.00-5.00 range), I just got the feeling "jump-generic skating-spin-jump-steps..." that I get watching low-elvel skaters... (maybe I'm simply wrong and when I watch the video again, I'll say "Wow, that's wonderful!")
Nice competition, technically, though: what a shame for Medvedeva's SP, the skaters in the top3 really skated great programs!

gmyers said:

What would you call that Chen double axel technique? It's starts looking like a salcow or loop entrance and an edge jump but all of a sudden she's forward!

Click to expand...

It's a difficult entrance. What was that a rocker? She went from a back inside to a forward outside edge and right up into the axel. I thought it was great! Good height and nice speed and flow out of it. I've seen several skaters use that entrance before.

I haven't watched anyone else yet but I thought Karen was fabulous. Her program is lovely, her jumps looked solid (the 3-3 may have been close) but everything else was very nice.

I think this is the best female competition from the JGP.The top 3 will surely make the final. And all three of them are very good in all directions, nice programs, good choreo and interpretation, nice costumes, good TES. Even though Karen Chen is a a very special little thing, I liked better the russian girls. It's like the Junior Worlds with Sotskova being Samantha. She skates and looks like a senior but being only 13. I mean she is much more senior than all Radionova, Lipnitskaya and Tuktamisheva. She looks and skates like Adelina who is 18 but has much better technique than her. What can I say? This is the russian curse: being awfully good and so damn young! Sotskova might be "the next best thing" winning everything in the next 2 seasons like Adelina, Julia and Elena did before her, and with little exceptions also Liza. I really liked Mevdeeva, I think just a little bot more than Sotskova, maybe because of the baby ballerina look and surprisingly because of the stepseq she got 0 points. That was such a pity because it looked so good.

As for Karen, she remindes me of Caroline Zhang as a body type. Of course she has better chances than C even if her body would change in the same direction because she has better technique, she jumps higher and has very, very good speed. I was so in love with little Caroline and felt so sad for what happened to her that I am afraid to make hopes for other asian american girls who resembles her. Ar first was Angela Wang last season who capture my attention and it seems that she already has problems and she looks a little heavier. But she is such a talented and gracious girl. Anyway, I hope Karen will defeat the puberty monster because she has the whole package.

And because Kiira Korpi is may favourite female skater, I am very happy to see that at least now when she is close to retiring some good youngsters are coming from behind. Liubov Efimenko was delightful to watch. She was born in Russia, I think her mother is russian and her father is finnish but I am not sure.

FSGMT said:

Just watching the videos (before reading scores/protocols) I thought that my ranking for the PCS was:
1) Chen
2) Medvedeva
3) Chartrand
4) Siraj
5) Sotskova: she really didn't impress me, artistically, I think that I need to watch her program again to understand these "high" scores, because I frankly thought that her program was very weak in the PE, CH and IN areas (in the 4.00-5.00 range), I just got the feeling "jump-generic skating-spin-jump-steps..." that I get watching low-elvel skaters... (maybe I'm simply wrong and when I watch the video again, I'll say "Wow, that's wonderful!")
Nice competition, technically, though: what a shame for Medvedeva's SP, the skaters in the top3 really skated great programs!

Click to expand...

See, I totally disagree! I thought the PCS was totally on par. I agree Chen is the most well rounded of presentation and skating skills, and is deservedly first. Medvedeva is bubbly and charming, but her skating skills are weaker. Sotskova has strong skating skills, but needs work on presenting her program to the audience. I think she definitely understands the music, and has an introspective sort of artistry but isn't strong on showing that to the audience yet - which is totally fine at this point, given that she's 13. She also has very nice lines. And her 3Lo came out of nowhere! I don't see anything about Chartrand that merits her PCS being higher than Sotskova - she's sloppy and unpolished by comparison, and neither her speed nor her SS stand out. She's made improvements, for sure, though. As for Yasmin, I thought she was a little tentative today.

But that's figure skating...people always see different things

FSGMT said:

Just watching the videos (before reading scores/protocols) I thought that my ranking for the PCS was:
1) Chen
2) Medvedeva
3) Chartrand
4) Siraj
5) Sotskova: she really didn't impress me, artistically, I think that I need to watch her program again to understand these "high" scores, because I frankly thought that her program was very weak in the PE, CH and IN areas (in the 4.00-5.00 range), I just got the feeling "jump-generic skating-spin-jump-steps..." that I get watching low-elvel skaters... (maybe I'm simply wrong and when I watch the video again, I'll say "Wow, that's wonderful!")
Nice competition, technically, though: what a shame for Medvedeva's SP, the skaters in the top3 really skated great programs!

Click to expand...

I agree with you totally here Chen really is exquisite , she has really improved the height in her jumps tremendously. Sotskova has very solid skating and lovely jumps but the program construction is not quite as good but a very strong showing nonetheless and she is a very exciting prospect. Alaine Chartrand skates with ALOT of speed and really attacks those jumps, that took some serious guts to go for that 3t on the combo after not having the best landing on the lutz, I really enjoyed that program! I think siraj had such a mature well choreographed program and its good to see that she has added the loop this season IIRC she wasn't doing it before?